Foothill Ranch-based nursing home operator Skilled Healthcare Group Inc. is looking at a potential sale of the company.
Skilled has hired J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, part of New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co., to look at strategic alternatives, including a possible sale of the company’s real estate holdings or of the entire company.
The company runs about 100 nursing homes and assisted living facilities in California and six other states. It also provides rehabilitation therapy, hospice care and home healthcare.
Skilled’s move could be partially inspired by Irvine’s Sabra Health Care REIT Inc., a healthcare real estate owner that spun off in November from Irvine-based Sun Healthcare Group Inc., the largest nursing home operator based in the county.
Sabra was created after Sun decided to create a second company based on the nursing homes and other buildings it had owned.
Sun continues to run its nursing homes and other facilities and now leases space from Sabra.
Skilled is the second largest nursing home operator based in the county after Sun and ahead of Ensign Group Inc. of Mission Viejo.
Last year, Skilled settled a lawsuit that threatened to cripple the company.
The company paid $50 million to end a class-action lawsuit over staffing levels at its 22 California nursing homes.
Originally, a Humboldt County jury found Skilled should pay $677 million, an amount that threatened to bankrupt the company.
